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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28400523">In a Blink</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10'>reeby10</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>IT (Movies - Muschietti)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But only a little, Canon-Typical Violence, First Kiss, Getting Together, IT Chapter Two Fix-It, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Language, POV Richie Tozier, Richie Tozier Vomits, Visions, just at the very beginning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:07:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28400523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>That fucking clown had skewered Eddie right through, with Richie lying there below him in shock, covered in Eddie’s blood and unable to do a thing about it.</p><p>And then Richie blinked again and Eddie was fine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Holiday Horror 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In a Blink</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_spoon/gifts">glorious_spoon</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Richie looked up at Eddie above him — which would have been a nice view in other circumstances — but then he blinked and suddenly there was blood, so much blood. It was dripping from Eddie’s open mouth, which had been smiling just a split second ago, and from the huge, gruesome wound on his chest. That fucking clown had skewered Eddie right through, with Richie lying there below him in shock, covered in Eddie’s blood and unable to do a thing about it.</p><p>And then Richie blinked again and Eddie was fine, still hunched over Richie like nothing at all had happened and like Richie hadn’t just seen him bloody and dying.</p><p>Eddie opened his mouth to say something, but Richie’s gaze caught on a movement over Eddie’s shoulder and he was moving before he could even think about what he was doing. He rolled them both to the side, uncaring of the way the rocks and uneven ground dug into his back and sides. That was a consideration for later, when they weren’t fighting for their lives.</p><p>One of It’s freaky spears embedded itself in the ground right where the two of them had been with a crash, shaking them where they’d landed just a few feet away. Richie could hear one of the others shouting — probably several of the others, honestly — but he was too distracted to really process what they were saying. His mind was stuck on that image of Eddie he’d seen and how that exact thing would have happened if he’d moved just a little bit slower.</p><p>His stomach turned and he barely made it over to his side before he was sick.</p><p>“Richie! Richie, come on!”</p><p>He could feel someone pulling at his shoulder and looked up to see Eddie, whole and as healthy as could be expected under the current terrible circumstances. Eddie’s eyes were wild and he barely paused between shaking Richie’s shoulder and reaching for his hand to pull him away to the relative safety of the cave wall.</p><p>“Are you ok?” Eddie asked as they crouched behind a large rock, hands still clasped, keeping an eye on the fucking clown as Bev and Bill taunted It from the other side of the cave. “Your eyes went kind of… weird for a minute, and then you just saved my life.”</p><p>“My eyes?” Richie repeated. He shook his head, trying to clear it. “I just… I knew I had to get you safe. Safer. Away, at least.”</p><p>“Well, thank you,” Eddie said, voice soft and more vulnerable than Richie remembered hearing since they were kids. He opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it, taking a deep breath before speaking again. “We, uh, we should go help, I guess.”</p><p>Richie nodded because he didn’t know what else to say or do — except yell that he loved Eddie and <i>needed</i> him to survive, and that seemed inappropriate for a lot of reasons — and the two of them emerged from behind the rock to continue the fight. The Losers needed them. Whatever weird thing had happened, well, he could think of that later.</p><p>Much later.</p><div class="center">
  <p>⁂</p>
</div>Somehow, they defeated It. Richie was there for it, all of it, and he wasn’t quite sure he could put into words how. The whole ordeal felt like a blur. Except that one moment that still stood out crystal clear in his memory when he’d seen Eddie speared and dripping blood.<p>That he couldn’t get out of his head. It was like an afterimage from a camera flash, burned into the backs of his eyelids so he saw it every time he closed his eyes, even to blink. Every time he saw it again or thought of it, he thought he might be sick again.</p><p>The idea of losing Eddie after finding him again after so long was unbearable, even if Eddie wasn’t really his. And couldn’t be. Because he was <i>married</i>. He needed to remember that.</p><p>The Losers, by unspoken agreement, headed for the quarry. It wasn’t really cleaner there, but it was still their space in a way, and it felt fitting to go there now that It was finally defeated. For good this time. Richie could feel the certainty of that in his bones.</p><p>The road to the quarry was rough and rocky, no different really than it had been twenty seven years ago when they followed the same path. They’d all had more skinned knees out here than they could count.</p><p>Richie was thinking about the worst skinned knees he’d gotten, which had been more like his entire shin than just his knee, when he blinked and suddenly Bill was falling. It was like watching in slow motion as Bill’s foot caught on a large rock he hadn’t seen and then it sped up and he was down, clutching his ankle at an unnatural angle.</p><p>And then Richie blinked again, and Bill, just a few steps up and to the right of him, was perfectly fine. But Richie glanced down and there was the same rock he’d seen, just a step ahead of Bill.</p><p>He reached out, grabbing Bill by the back of the shirt just as Bill’s foot hit the rock. They both stumbled but remained upright, almost unconsciously avoiding the rock without too much difficulty.</p><p>Bill looked over at him, eyes wide. “What was that?”</p><p>“Just keeping you from falling and hurting your pretty little head,” Richie replied, grinning with a smugness he didn’t feel as he pointed at the rock.</p><p>Everyone — because of course everyone else had stopped too — looked down at the rock in surprise. Richie shrugged when they all looked back to him, trying to pretend it was nothing. In reality, his stomach was churning again, though not as badly as when he saw the vision about Eddie.</p><p>They’d started walking again, but Richie found himself pausing at that thought. Vision? Was he having visions? He shuddered, feeling sicker than ever. He really hoped not, because there was no good explanation for that.</p><p>He’d fallen a little bit behind the group now, but for once he really didn’t mind. He had a lot of things on his mind, and honestly, this way he could keep an eye on the rest of them. It might be gone, but apparently there was still danger out there for them, and he could help at least a little. Not that he had ever wanted that kind of responsibility.</p><p>“Hey, are you ok?”</p><p>Richie jerked around to see that Bev had fallen to the back with him. She looked worried, and maybe even a little afraid. With good reason, probably, even if Richie knew things weren’t exactly back to normal.</p><p>“Sure, yeah, of course,” he replied, giving her his best fake smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”</p><p>She just looked at him, unimpressed, and he deflated a little. She’d always been able to call any of them out, and he was no exception. He just wished her bullshit meter wasn’t working quite so well right now.</p><p>“I mean, could any of us really be ok after all that?” he tried, deflating even more when she still didn’t look convinced.</p><p>“Of course not, and I doubt we will be for a long time,” she replied. “But there’s something else wrong, something you’re not telling us.”</p><p>She didn’t sound accusatory, but Richie felt it that way anyway. He didn’t want to lie to his friends, but he also didn’t want to put them in danger or scare them. And this, at the very least, scared him. A lot.</p><p>But, he had to say something. Richie thought he might explode if he didn’t, and Bev was probably his best choice for someone to tell.</p><p>“I’ve been… seeing things,” he said haltingly, keeping his voice low even though the others were a fair bit ahead of them by now. He could see Eddie loudly arguing about something with Bill, and that made him smile for a second before it faded away.</p><p>Beverly reached out to take his hand, intertwining their fingers in silent support. He felt thirteen all over again. “What kind of things?”</p><p>“Visions, I guess? Just, things that are about to happen. Bad things. Sometimes really bad things.” He cleared his throat against the urge to puke. “I’ve been able to stop them from coming true so far, but I’m… I’m afraid that some time I won’t be able to. And I’m scared.”</p><p>“Oh, wow,” Bev breathed out, seemingly as shaken as he was. “When did this start happening?”</p><p>“The first one was when Eddie saved me from the deadlights,” he said. “I saw him getting stabbed by It, but I managed to roll us away. It was… it was really awful, Bev.”</p><p>She squeezed his hand, hard, and he suddenly remembered how Bev had told them about seeing each one of them die in her dreams. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said, voice a little shaky. “And with Bill, the same thing happened?”</p><p>“Yeah, I saw him like, breaking his ankle.”</p><p>“I really hate to say this, but it’s the only explanation I have right now,” she said. “Do you think it’s because of the deadlights? Like my dreams?”</p><p>He hadn’t wanted to think about that if he was honest, but the idea had been knocking around in the back of his mind. There really <i>wasn’t</i> anything else to explain it. He’d been caught up in the deadlights and Eddie had saved him and then the visions started. He wasn’t sure if that was It’s magic or something else since It was gone and the visions were still happening, but he hated it either way.</p><p>“Yeah,” he admitted, breaking the tight silence that had followed her question.</p><p>“Well,” Bev said, then stopped. She was rarely at a loss for words, but this seemed to be one of those times.</p><p>“Hey, you two, hurry up!”</p><p>Richie and Bev both looked up to see that the others were waiting at the edge of the quarry for them. They glanced back at each other and Bev squeezed his hand again, giving him a reassuring smile.</p><p>“We’ll figure it out,” she said as they sped up, voice quiet enough that only Richie could hear. He let himself breathe, reassured that she had his back and knew at least a little what he was going through. “I promise.”</p><div class="center">
  <p>⁂</p>
</div>After the quarry, dripping and no less dirty than before, they headed back to the townhouse. Richie was tired, but he was feeling a little better after talking to Bev and not having any other visions since Bill’s near fall. He hoped it stayed that way. He’d be happy to never have another vision in his life.<p>They filed inside and up the stairs, probably making a mess of the carpet. They still didn’t see anyone who actually worked at the townhouse, though, so none of them particularly cared. Richie had half thought they’d get to the building to find nothing more than a pile of rubble illusioned to look like the townhouse by It’s magic.</p><p>One by one they went to their rooms to get cleaned up, agreeing that they’d meet downstairs for drinks afterward, this time to celebrate. Richie and Eddie were the last ones in the hallway, their rooms all the way down at the end.</p><p>Richie turned to say he’d see Eddie later, but he blinked, and suddenly Eddie was kissing him. He blinked again, too surprised to do anything else, and then just as suddenly, Eddie wasn’t kissing him anymore. He was standing right where he had been.</p><p>“You can’t kiss me, you’re married,” Richie blurted out, brain still not quite caught up after what he’d seen.</p><p>“What the fuck?” Eddie said, obviously stunned. His cheeks were flushed, though Richie wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or something else. “How did you know I was going to kiss you?”</p><p>For a moment Richie considered lying to just laughing it off, but this was Eddie. He couldn’t do that. It was <i>Eddie</i>.</p><p>“Apparently the deadlights gave me psychic powers or some shit,” Richie said, heart beating hard in his chest. He didn’t think Eddie would think less of him or anything, but that fear was still there. “So I saw you do it befe you like, could do it.”</p><p>“Huh.”</p><p>For a moment Richie thought that was all Eddie was going to say. Which, he supposed, wouldn’t be the worst thing. There was no yelling or crying from either of them at least. Though an explanation of the vision kiss would be nice.</p><p>“I guess that’s not the worst thing the deadlights could have done to you,” Eddie finally said. He nodded, like that was the end of it. “But that doesn’t matter right now. I was going to kiss you.”</p><p>“Uh yeah, I was wondering about that,” Richie said slowly. There was an immediate impulse to just go into his room and slam the door in Eddie’s face, but he pushed it down viciously. Now was not the time for running. “Since like I said, you’re married.”</p><p>“Not for long.” The words came out with a viciousness that Richie didn’t expect, and he startled back a little. Eddie frowned apologetically. “I’m getting a divorce.”</p><p>“What?” Richie sputtered, mouth dropping open in surprise. “Why didn’t you say that when I asked about you being married?”</p><p>Eddie shrugged, though he looked a little chastised. “Because I wasn’t then. I called when I got back to the car and told Myra I wanted a divorce.”</p><p>“Why?” Richie asked plaintively, the only thing he could think to say.</p><p>“Because I saw you and I… I realized I didn’t love her and I was miserable,” Eddie said, voice soft. He took a step forward. “I remembered I loved you when we were kids, and I think I still do.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>Richie didn’t have a chance to say anything else before Eddie was pressing in to kiss him just like before, except it was actually <i>real</i> this time. The kiss took his breath away in the best possible way. It was everything he’d dreamed about since he was thirteen fucking years old and hadn’t known he was missing for the past twenty seven miserable, lonely, closeted years.</p><p>When they drew away, Richie’s eyes were glazed and he couldn’t keep a goofy grin from his face. His heart felt like it might burst with happiness, and every negative thought about what his visions might mean had been wiped from his mind.</p><p>There was a part of him, way in the back of his mind, that was pretty certain he wouldn’t be having any more visions anyway. This one, knowing Eddie was going to kiss him and then actually having it happen, felt like an ending in a way. The visions had done their job.</p><p>“That was… wow,” he managed to get out.</p><p>Eddie was looking just as blown away as he was, a blush high on his cheeks and his eyes bright. He looked happier than Richie had seen him since they’d gotten to Derry, though that wouldn’t be hard since pretty much everything else had been shit.</p><p>“So what now?” Richie asked, itching to just forget everything and go back to kissing.</p><p>“Now I think we should go shower,” Eddie replied with a grin, mouth quirked like there was some secret the two of them shared, which wasn’t exactly untrue. “And then we can meet the others for those celebratory drinks.”</p><p>“Oh,” Richie said, not wanting to leave Eddie quite yet even though a shower and a drink did sound very nice. Then Eddie stepped forward, past him, and into Richie’s room. Richie’s eyes went wide because that meant-</p><p>“<i>Oh</i>. Yeah. That sounds good.”</p>
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